Unfortunately as the original photoshop file corrupted, I haven't been able to include any more that these two exports, with the main difference being that I "turned the lights on" in the final draft to create a sense that someone was home.
Ultimately, I wanted to encourage the viewer to insert themself into the scene and imagine themself living in this house or exploring in the spaceship and flying with the turtles. I wanted to create a piece of art that appeals to our inner child, that feels like playtime again for our imagination and in a way takes us back home.
I wanted to give the scene more life without breaking the spell by actually depicting any humans, so the lights become a stand-in for the humanity that we know is home, even without seeing them, like a sort of visual synecdoche.
I made this piece up from copyright-free images from the web, often reinventing them in new and fun ways. The house is actually made up from parts of three different houses (two from London and one from Ireland) put together to create a home that was both familiar and fantastical. For the planet itself I used a NASA picture of the moon.
I wanted a classic-looking, Tintinesque rocket, so I actually found an image of a wooden toy rocket to which I attached life rings and moored it up like a speedboat, in order to play on the idea of a space ship. I also attached a dinghy to it which helped make this spaceship familiar, and also made it more dreamlike in theme. I liked the idea of a toy rocket because it was also quite nostalgic, bringing up memories of childhood playtime and imagination. The fact that it floats above the planet also helps give a feel of the weightlessness and lack of up or down in space.
I chose an image of the starry sky for the background and populated it with planets from Nasa's images. I wanted the shape of these tertiary elements to have a flow to them creating movement and complementing the primary and secondary focuses (world and spaceship). As such, I placed them in a sort of natural spiral, flowing into the flock of flying turtles.
I included turtles because I wanted some wildlife in this dreamscape and while I considered whales, I settled for turtles in reference to the Cosmic Turtle motif that features in many mythologies. Additionally, I really liked the way this added to the sea/space fusion imagery. Also, turtles have have a fun and cute association in popular culture through films such as "Finding Nemo", which made them appropriate for the theme of playtime.
I overlaid the whole image with an image of smoke, which helped create a cool space dust effect, particularly around the planet, as well as the impression of distant galaxies.
